1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical tone generating apparatus desirable for an electronic musical instrument, an automatic musical performance apparatus, or the like, more particularly to a technique to reproduce a sound field corresponding to positions of musical instruments which are arranged on a stage of concert hall, jazz club house, or the like.
2. Prior Art
In a conventional sound effect technique, sound effect control information is preset in an apparatus so that the sound effect (e.g. reverberative effect) is desirably presented to a concert hall, jazz club house, or the like. Then, assuming that a sound effect for a specific concert hall is selected by an operator, or automatically selected, a specific sound effect is supplied of that concert hall based on the sound effect control information, by which this specific sound effect is converted to a musical tone signal.
Such conventional technique can present to some extent a desirable sound effect for listening to a performance, however, a sound field cannot be produced corresponding to respective positions of the musical instruments which are arranged on the stage of the concert hall, that is, the conventional technique cannot present a feeling of being at a live performance. In other words, the feeling given by the conventional technique is different from the feelings related to an actual sound field (related to a position of the sound image, a frequency component of the musical tone, a magnitude of the sound effect, or the like) since many types of the musical instruments are arranged at various positions on the stage of the concert hall, in case of a live performance. Accordingly, the conventional apparatus cannot present an accurate feeling of the sound field.
On the other hand, it is well known that an electronic musical instrument can have several speakers to reproduce a performance with the position of the sound image and sound effect varied by the adjustment of volume controls, switches, or the like, in which these volume controls and switches are mounted on a panel of the apparatus.
However, this is very complicated in that many select elements such as the volume controls and switches must be adjusted to reproduce a desirable feeling of the sound field, especially it is not easy to adjust a sound field based on an imagination of the position of the musical instruments as if these musical instruments are arranged on the stage of the concert hall. Up until recently, the sound effect control information has been thus preset in the apparatus to reproduce the sound effect corresponding to a stage of the concert hall, requiring a great deal of the information to be preset in the apparatus, and an apparatus of highly complicated construction.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a musical tone generating apparatus which can reproduce sound fields by a simple operation corresponding to musical instruments as if these musical instruments are arranged on a stage of a concert hall, or the like, so as to obtain the feeling of being at a live performance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a musical tone generating apparatus which can readily verify each position of the musical instruments as if these musical instruments are arranged on a stage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a musical tone generating apparatus which can provide a simple operation to reproduce the sound fields of musical instruments on respective stages.
In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone generating apparatus comprising: a position information generating apparatus for generating musical instrument position information corresponding to positions of the musical instruments arranged on a stage of a performance place; an information converting apparatus for converting the musical instrument position information into musical tone parameter control information; a sound source apparatus for generating a musical tone source signal having a tone color corresponding to each of the musical instruments arranged on the stage; a musical tone control apparatus for controllably generating musical tone output signals corresponding to the musical tone parameter control information relative to the position of the musical instruments by receiving the musical tone source signal from the sound source apparatus; and an output apparatus for generating a musical tone from a plurality of output channels by receiving the musical tone output signal from the musical tone control apparatus so that a sound field is reproduced corresponding to the position of the musical instruments arranged on the stage.
The operator can set the position information of the musical instruments in the position information generating apparatus, even the apparent position of the musical instruments can be moved to the desired position.
The musical tone signal output can be read from a storage apparatus, or read from musical instruments.
In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical tone generating apparatus comprising: a select apparatus for selecting a stage from among performance places; a storage apparatus for storing musical instrument position information which indicates a position of musical instruments arranged on a stage, and tone color indication information for indicating a tone color corresponding to each of the musical instruments; a reading apparatus for reading the musical instrument position information and the tone color indication information from the storage apparatus, in which both the musical instrument position information and the tone color indicated information are selected by the select apparatus; an information converting apparatus for converting the musical instrument position information into a musical tone parameter control information corresponding to a value of the plane coordinates and a variable which is determined by the value of the plane coordinates; a sound source apparatus for generating a musical tone source signal having a tone color corresponding to each of the musical instruments arranged on the stage; a musical tone control apparatus for controllably generating musical tone output signals in response to the musical tone parameter control information relative to the position of the musical instruments by receiving the musical tone source signal from the sound source apparatus; and an output apparatus for generating musical tone from a plurality of output channels by receiving the musical tone output signal from the musical tone control apparatus so that a sound field is reproduced corresponding to the position of the musical instruments arranged on the stage.
The musical instrument position information can be in the form of preset information corresponding to a predetermined stage as well as tone color indication information.